many of you proably haven't heard about the little afghan boy named qudrat (pronounced COOD-raht)-- he was born with a very bad heart defect-- basically the arteries going to and from his heart were backwards. the arteries that took the blood from the heart went into the heart and the arteries that took the blood to the heart took it out. basically that means that the little guy wasn't getting oxygen rich blood. his father brought the qudrat to camp phoenix (the main us camp in afghanistan). qudrat was whisked here to indianapolis and had surgery on his heart. it was a success. he was about 14 months old, or so, but was the size of a four month old. after his surger qudrat became very, very healthy. he porked up (in a big way) and he had the most wonderful oldman/baby-toothless-grin. he was the cutest little guy. he looked like a little afgan buddah, truthfully.

qudrat, who was here with his father, was released from the hospital, but had to stay in indianapolis for a few more weeks because he had been exposed to chicken pox (chicken pox is not a common disease in afghanistan). as a result, through the newspaper and television qudrat became our little brother, or grandson, or nephew. in short, he became a happy, chubby, little buddah-like part of the family. its just been kind of a sad day on a certain level.